Irony: Sitting in Starbucks having my second “blackeye” while reading an article in the Washington Post about how Starbucks has “lost its soul and can’t find it”. It’s true: Starbucks doesn’t even smell like roasted coffee anymore — it’s “sterile and cookie cutter”. Odd thing is that the quotes are from the Chairman of Starbucks, Howard Shultz. They don’t even manually make the espresso anymore; they press a button on an automated machine. The coffee is sealed in packages (no smell!). The article also stated that Starbucks has 13,000 stores (and Shultz wants to expand to 45,000); they wonder why they are “sterile”.

I do like the taste of Starbucks’ coffee. I used to go to a local coffee-roasting shop, but the Starbucks store is more convenient for me right now. I think I’ll start going back to the local place again, even if it is a few extra minutes away (they have good coffee – and it smells like roasting coffee in the place).